It all begins when a silver dagger goes missing.
For her entire life, a human named Cora Gabris has known that lycans were searching for her, as she was born as a Ruby -- a human that, when turned into a lycan, will become much stronger than any of...
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Deep in the mountains of the upper west coast of Eloria, lycans thrived under the near full moon. Reiger Pack rooted their society through a gorge that centralized the pack into a sprawling collective; most humans would call it a capitol.
Aged at nearly six hundred years, the momentous cliff face of the gorge housed the Alpha in a deeply carved set of tunnels. Tall, carved out windows lined the rocky wall until they reached the highest habitable zone that overlooked a lake. The official throne to the Alpha resided in the middle of a small island in that lake, surrounded by mountains and his home.
Nature was their natural protector, guarding them with her terrain that humans perished in.
The gorge of the Reiger capitol widened into a valley that stretched through the mountain chain until it reached a flatter region with wide open grasses, known simply as the Commons. The Alpha would gather here for their weekly communals, or a celebration, or to receive a larger audience.
An enormous firepit rumbled in the Commons in continued celebration of the Omni's appearance, flames licking desperately for the starry sky above. The human named Cora Gabris had yet to arrive, although a herald of the Ashmores ran for two days and a night to bring the news. His paws were bloody by the time he reached the Alpha to confirm what the Seers saw.
Nearly a hundred more lycans were sent to guard the Omni, or as the humans called her, the Phasing Ruby.
Tonight was their eighth celebration in honor of her arrival and she wasn't even here yet.
Ludovic Reiger, cousin to the Alpha, watched the fire in the Commons roar with such a ferocity that he could feel it in his chest, the flames reaching higher than a home. Embers aimlessly drifted, sometimes onto exposed skin. A drum rolled as the lycan dancers beat their feet to the rhythm. Chatter and laughter laced throughout the crowd of a hundred lycans, males and females interlocked in each other's arms while younglings ran about. The golden glow of the fire and torches cast harsh shadows, the smell of smoke and leaves intertwining them all.
The remainder of his pack--nearly eighteen hundred others--took residence in their Clan territories, as the Commons couldn't hold more than three hundred. Ludovic couldn't remember the last time all the Clans of Reiger had been at the cliff face, let alone Reiger Commons. He didn't know if there was even enough space. A sign of how we thrive; a reason for our infighting.
Ludovic trained his gaze to his cousin and the Alpha, Theran Reiger, who sat at one of the two thrones that the Alpha claimed. The one at the Commons was smaller than the official throne, but they were both carved out of a very old tree trunk, lined with aluminum decorations to mimic silver in an attempt to establish their dominance over the metal and their world.
If Theran were ever to be pierced with the poisonous metal, Ludovic had no doubt that Alpha would writhe and complain like a youngling.
Lycans like Ludovic had been raised and trained with small lacerations of the metal so he knew it's sting. It aided in his own discipline, so he'd know how far he could push his body when afflicted with it.
